Quotes from Thomas Merton

A life is either all spiritual or not spiritual at all. No man can serve two masters. Your life is shaped by the end you live for. You are made in the image of what you desire.

For perfect hope is achieved on the brink of despair, when instead of falling over the edge, we find ourselves walking on air.

What can we gain by sailing to the moon if we cannot cross the abyss that separates us from ourselves?

Every one of us is shadowed by an illusory person: a false Self. We are not very good at recognizing illusions, least of all the ones we cherish about ourselves.

We stumble and fall constantly even when we are most enlightened. But when we are in true spiritual darkness, we do not even know that we have fallen.

On Pride: This sickness is most dangerous when it succeeds in looking like humility. When a proud man thinks he is humble his case is hopeless.

The goal of fasting is inner unity.

My spiritual goal is to one day walk into God and disappear.

Anxiety is the mark of spiritual insecurity.

Meditation is one of the ways in which the spiritual man keeps himself awake.

Now anxiety is the mark of spiritual insecurity. It is the fruit of unanswered questions. But questions cannot go unanswered unless they first be asked.

While some men see ordinary happenings, others see divine light and guidance.

It is in the ordinary duties and labors of life that the Christian can and should develop his spiritual union with God.

Our real journey in life is interior.

Contemplation is the loving sense of this life, this presence and this eternity.

Infinite sharing is the law of God s inner life.

The meaning of life is found in openness to being and "being present" in full awareness.

The Christian life, and especially the contemplative life, is a continual discovery of Christ in new and unexpected places.

By reading the scriptures I am so renewed that all nature seems renewed around me and with me. The sky seems to be a pure, a cooler blue, the trees a deeper green. The whole world is charged with the glory of God and I feel fire and music under my feet.

When we are strong, we are always much greater than the things that happen to us.

People may spend their whole lives climbing the ladder of success only to find, once they reach the top, that the ladder is leaning against the wrong wall.

We do not exist for ourselves.

The solution of the problem of life is life itself. Life is not attained by reason and analysis but first of all by living.

If you want to have a spiritual life you must unify your life. A life is either all spiritual or not spiritual at all.